Bengal football set to go the Everton Way

The Everton Academy that has already churned out top player like Wayne Rooney along with three other prodigious players like Leon Osman, James Vaughan and Tony Hibbert who are the youngest to have participated in the English Premier League (EPL), wants to transmit its own style, passion and philosophy of grooming promising footballers in Bengal.

The academy’s technical director Tony Farrell, explaining the purpose of this new venture, told reporters yesterday: “We may not have stars as Manchester United or Chelsea or Liverpool have. But our mission is always to keep on generating quality players. And we want to transpire the same philosophy, which we officially call The Everton Way to the football in Bengal.”

The club’s deputy chief executive Robert Elstone, who was in the city yesterday, remarked: “It’s not that we don’t have any plans to market the brand in the near future. We want to introduce the ‘Everton Way’ that will ultimately benefit Bengal to obtain quality players in the future.”

The IFA coaches’ forum has invited nearly 65 coaches from all the districts along with a few former international players from Bengal to attend the 10-day coaches’ training programme, which starts tomorrow at the Yuba Bharati Krirangan. The coaches apart, the current Under-14 and U-16 Bengal players have also been invited to attend the clinic, which will be conducted by Farrell.

IFA secretary Utpal Ganguly said: “Farrell will return after the 10-day programme. Then the attendant coaches will be asked to undergo online coaches’ education programme of The Everton Way before Farrell again makes his second visit to Kolkata at the end of this year. And we are also trying our best to get sponsorships so that the project doesn’t get hampered in the future.”